The planned two days nationwide protest organized by Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to pressure the Federal Government to meet the striking Academic Staff Union of Universities'(ASUU) demands will begin today.
The NLC had said the protest would hold at all the state capitals on Tuesday while the mega rally would take place in Abuja on Wednesday.
About forty NLC affiliates, including aviation, bank, oil and gas, electricity and construction workers are expected to participate in the protest.
ASUU had shut all public universities and commenced its ongoing strike on February 14, 2022, after the Federal Government failed to meet some of its demands including the release of revitalisation funds for universities, renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement, release of earned allowances for university lecturers, and deployment of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution platform for the payment of salaries and allowances of university lecturers.
Briefing after a stakeholders’ meeting at the NLC secretariat, on Monday, Chairman of the NLC, Lagos State Council, Mrs Funmi Sessi, said: “We will converge as early as 6:30 a.m. at Ikeja and take off by 7.00 a.m. to deliver a letter to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu in Alausa.
“The protest is to support ASUU in the ongoing strike, so we call on all affiliate members to come out en masse”, she added.
Meanwhile, the police and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps say they will deploy personnel in critical infrastructure and facilities in response to the planned protest.
The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence spokesperson, Shola Odumosu, said armed and unarmed personnel would be on the ground to protect the protesters and Nigerians.
He said, “We understand that at times like this, thugs would want to take advantage and launch their attacks. Among those we will be deploying apart from the armed and unarmed personnel are men from our intelligence department.”
